Jeeps and Chevrolets Helped Power Obama Victory

President Barack Obama visited the General Motors plant in Lordstown September, 2009.

If President Barack Obama ever privately doubted the wisdom of the auto industry bailout that defined the early part of his first term, those doubts dissolved last night in Ohio.

Just as large red patches seemed to consume the graphic U.S. maps used to track the election, a critical blue band took hold across the state’s industrial northern edge, linking cities that depend on the car business. Indeed, this stripe appeared to stretch from Chrysler Group LLC’s Toledo Jeep plant to the front door of the General Motors Co. factory in Lordstown that turns out Chevrolet Cruze sedans.

Both the Lordstown and Toledo plants were in jeopardy after their companies filed for bankruptcy protection in 2009. But the Obama administration stood by the automakers and today the factories are building strong-selling vehicles.

The Ohio election result also indicates the power of the United Auto Workers union, though diminished from its heyday, is still formidable. Union officials in Ohio had said they would work hard for Obama in part because they owed it to him after the bailout.

A recent anti-bailout ad from the Romney campaign, which said Chrysler was shifting jobs to China, helped galvanize many in the auto industry against the challenger. The Obama camp launched a counter-attack ad that may have helped further energized auto workers.